LONDON (Reuters) – Vacuum cleaner company Dyson said on Thursday it will cut 900 jobs around the world due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on consumer demand.
Dyson employs 14,000 people globally, 4,000 of whom are based in Britain.
“The COVID-19 crisis has accelerated changes in consumer behaviour and therefore requires changes in how we engage with our customers and how we sell our products,” a company spokesman said.
“These proposals would regrettably result in around 600 redundancies in the UK and 300 in the rest of the world.”
The company developed a medical ventilator from scratch at the start of the pandemic, which founder James Dyson later said the government did not need.
It has not used public money nor the British government’s job retention scheme during the crisis.
Most of the staff impacted by Thursday’s announcement are in retail or customer service roles, and the company said employees will be redeployed to different jobs where possible.
(Reporting by Alistair Smout; editing by Stephen Addison)
